Help learners get the most from pre-booked heritage learning experiences before they even come: Pre-visits and information

Museums, galleries and historic sites want learners to have the best learning experiences with them. A lot of effort is rightly put into session content and resources. Learners can benefit more from these if there’s good planning. Here, I’ll be sharing my experience of helping learners and those bringing them, to prepare for their visits.

Encourage pre-visits

Research has shown that pre-visits can make a big, positive difference to the outcomes of museum-led sessions. The booking form can be a good place for customers to book or register an interest in one. Pre-visits enable customers to familiarise themselves with the route to and around the parts of the museum they’ll be returning to. They can use this to write risk assessments and to prepare for the sensory experiences of the learning visit. It helps with those potentially troublesome, time-consuming details such as how they manage children’s visits to the shop or to the drinking fountain. Assist by flagging-up any changes since they last came.

Pre-visits also provide an opportunity to chat to staff face-to-face about activities and needs. FoH[i] should be able to advise on matters such as lunch areas and toilets but they probably won’t know details like timings. Avoid disappointment by saying when there’ll be someone around to answer specific questions about the forthcoming learning experience. You would of course, normally provide customers with this information when they enquire or book.

For SEND groups in particular, pre-visits can be a way to assess whether a visit is actually feasible but don’t rely on this as many teachers won’t have the time. Be clear about what is and isn’t possible when they first consider coming to your museum and open channels to discuss how flexible your provision can be. Be prepared that representatives of Home Educated groups may pre-visit as sub-groups and bring children. Teachers can only visit during their non-contact or private time so try to offer pre-visits out of school and museum opening hours. If your venue charges for entry, you could offer free or reduced-price family tickets to teachers/group leaders who’ve made bookings.

Pre-visit events

Some museums hold private opening events for teachers. These make attendees feel valued and have the (never to be underestimated!) lure of refreshments. Ask those you hope to attract what times of the year are most convenient for them to come. In my experience, it is best to avoid school holidays and shortly before Christmas. Better times are around the October half-term, in March before the Easter break and just after the May/June half-term.


Some pre-visit events incorporate CPD[ii]. This can help schools to justify sending several staff. CPD events highlight the museum’s quality of educational provision, understanding of professional needs, and build rapport with service users in the community. This can result in useful feedback to inform future service development and can lead to membership of your museum’s user advisory groups. You could, for example, give participants fun, experiential training on using handling objects for learning, thereby helping them to get more from your loans boxes. A good way to deliver CPD is in partnership with existing users of your learning service. Not only do they share their expertise with their peers, they promote the benefits of working with you.

The CPD offer has to be extremely good (perhaps involving external trainers) and well-marketed if you’re to charge for it. The success or otherwise of charging will depend on your customers and your motivation (is it a session pre-visit with added value or something self-standing?) See for example, St Albans Museums’ workshops for teachers. Such events provide an opportunity to show teachers around and to explain how sessions are run. However, they probably won’t give you the chance to discuss the learning needs of particular people or groups.

Pre-visit information

In reality, most people bringing learners won’t make a site visit, especially if they’ve been before. Make things as easy as possible for customers such as by supplying sample risk assessments they can tweak and sign-up to. Avoid sending lots of pre-visit documents by having them as website downloads. List essential ones on the booking form with weblinks to them. Ensure that when submitting the form, customers have to indicate that they have read them. Of course, there’s no guarantee that they have but if there’s a problem later, you can state that they’ve officially confirmed the shared expectations.

The pre-visit information you provide will vary according to your venue and learning offer. Teachers often discuss their trip plans among themselves so an easy-to-print introductory document is useful. FAQs are often appreciated for quick reference. I would classify pre-visit information into two groups: Essential reads for all learning service customers e.g. how to get here, health and safety, venue layout and facilities, how to pay. You could have these in the general information for visitors but I recommend having links to or within your learning service information too. The second group is information specific to your customers’ needs e.g. session content, curriculum-links, preparatory requirements. I’ve given some suggestions on topics at the end of this blog post.

You could provide optional pre and post visit learning activities to enhance, support or review the session. This provides enrichment and should not be interpreted as a substitute for coming! SEND learners may benefit from being given some of the session learning material before they come. If possible, discuss this with customers when they book.

It’s a cliché but true that “a picture speaks a thousand words”. Words or a map can’t convey what an environment or the people in it are really like. Photos of relevant staff with friendly introductory statements, still visual stories and short films can make people less apprehensive and better prepared to learn when they arrive. I suggest asking teachers/group leaders to share these resources with the entire class/group and to print out the relevant material for SEND learners, in advance.

Listen and learn

Outreach, such an assembly presentation, can be a good way to discover how to support visits and to help customers prepare for coming. The relationship between the museum, you, and the learners will have begun before they arrive. However, this may not be viable in terms of staff time and costs unless a charge is made. You could consider an attractive package which includes the cost of a staff member coming to the school and one or more class visits soon afterwards.

Unless accommodating groups of learners is difficult due to the nature of your premises, I’d recommend making the outreach offer equally good but distinctly different to the visiting experience. Give customers incentives to come if they can, rather than just to book outreach. Nothing beats the experience of actually coming to your unique heritage environment so promote this. At the same time, it’s important that learners who can’t physically come, don’t feel deprived. If it’s impossible for learners to visit for reasons such as disability access, I’d tailor outreach to their specific needs and embrace all aids to inclusion. 

Keep abreast of everything that might affect whether someone will come to you to learn. This ranges from changes in the NC[iii] to local transport routes. Make adaptations to meet these wherever possible. Get customers’ input if you can.

Bringing learners to venues outside the classroom can involve a lot of effort, stress and expense. This is why it’s important to make customers’ planning as easy as possible. Good communication and shared understandings will help both parties to get the best from the relationship and hopefully make it a long-term one.

Pre-visit information topics

General information

Drop-off/parking

Routes by public transport (if practicable)

Routes on foot from either or both of the above

Disability access

Gallery of images, visual stories, introductory film footage and/or audio welcomes. (These could come under the second category if tailored to a learning experience).

Map of site and/or building(s) showing layout, facilities, sensory experiences, access barriers and aids such as lifts.

Specific information

Session content e.g. How meet NC requirements, learning outcomes, types of activity, locations used, timings.

Requirements from customers e.g. pre-visit details of special needs and allergies, notification of cancellation or arrival delays, responsibility for discipline, minimum adult to child ratios.

Any paperwork or instructions which will facilitate fast-track entrance to the appropriate part of building.

Facilities incl. where to put bags and coats, toilets, lunch areas, drinking/bottle refill fountains, quiet areas, which spaces will be shared with the public and which won’t.

Activity material and suggested routes (downloadable or available on the day) for teacher-led visits.

Staff learners are likely to come into contact with and can approach for help incl. photos and brief introductions where appropriate. If unknown, give a generic portrait and explain identifying features like badges and uniforms incl. those for volunteers.

Risk Assessments, health and safety, and information about on site First Aid. (Outline what you expect from the customer -schools will usually bring a basic First Aid kit and someone who’s trained how to use it).

How to pay for sessions and how to make purchases on the day e.g. pre-order children’s ‘goodie bags’.

How to prepare for a visit e.g. what to wear, what to expect such as staff in costumes.

Photo permission form/statement

Pre-session activity resources

Samples/lists of resource materials used in museum-led sessions to help prepare SEND learners.

Session ‘takeaways’ received on the day or forwarded afterwards e.g. certificates, photographs, compilations of learners’ work.

Post-visit follow-up activity resources and suggestions.

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[i] Front of house staff/volunteers
[ii] Continuing Professional Development
[iii] National Curriculum